National Highways’ chief engineer has again called for shift in design culture within both the strategic roads operator and the wider sector.
The government-owned company has published follow-up guidance to its first design vision, ‘The road to good design’, which was published in 2018 using advice from its expert Strategic Design Panel.
Chief highway engineer Mike Wilson said: ’National Highways is a recognised authority for road design, building and maintenance, and our standards are used across the globe.
‘Our aspiration is to deliver roads which not only serve their purpose, but are also each examples of excellence, and which are aesthetically pleasing. To achieve this will require a shift in design culture within both National Highways and the wider roads sector.’
The Cockcrow 'green bridge' will be significantly wider than originally planned
The new guidance, People, places and processes: A guide to good design at National Highways highlights a series of integrated principles to improve the design quality of the network.
Another new publication, On the road to good design: Design review at National Highways, provides an overview of the design and construction of roads over a four-year period following the launch of the panel. It is based on the findings of design reviews set up to consider individual road schemes and standards in more depth.
A third document, Learning on the road to good design: Case studies, captures examples from the UK and abroad highlighting the value and wider benefits of good design.
Jonathan Wade, project manager for the M25J10/A3 Wisley interchange scheme, said: ‘The advice from design review was valuable in helping the Wisley interchange project team respond to the context and in shaping our final scheme proposals.
‘The panel with its broad range of experts was a useful forum to review the balance of constraints and opportunities and to extend our ambitions for the scheme.
‘We are now looking forward to starting works across the scheme in the autumn. This will include the construction of the Cockcrow green bridge, the inclusion of which was supported by the design review process.’
National Highways clarified that, although the review of the scheme supported the inclusion of a green bridge, it did not review the detailed design, which has since changed, including becoming significantly wider than originally planned.
